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FAMOUS SONGS
Highmore for Robert Dodsley's entertainment, "The King and the Miller of Mansfield;' but the best of all, and the most ancient, is the one still sung in our public schools—" There was a Jolly Miller once lived on the river Dee." Originally there were only two verses, but two more have been added, perhaps by Isaac Bicker-staff, w h o introduced it into his comic opera, " Love in a Village," Covent Garden Theatre, 1762. The music of this two-act piece was composed and arranged from early English ditties by the celebrated Dr. Thomas Augustine Arne, and " There was a Jolly Miller" was marked " old tune" even then. The old Dee mill at Chester, where the legendary miller of the Dee is supposed to have plied his trade, was burned down in May, 1895. The building, which stood picturesquely on the old' Dee Bridge, has had a remarkable history. Its ori-gin goes back to Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, and nephew of the Norman Conqueror, who first established the mill in the eleventh cen-tury. According to ancient legend the mills were doomed to be burned down three times. This prophecy has been more than fulfilled, the last destruction making the fourth conflagra-tion by which the mills have been destroyed. It is a curious fact that it was only the year pre-is |
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